iPhone XS Max review: The price for a great photo?

Mark Furler is News Regional Media's group digital editor. He’s an award-winning journalist who has lived and worked on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast for more than 30 years. He’s passionate about fighting for a better go for locals. His awards include Editor of the Year, and involvement in three PANPA Newspaper of the Year wins for the Sunshine Coast Daily. He has also been involved in INMA and News awards wins for excellence in digital coverage.

THIS time a year ago, I had just got my hands on the latest iPhone X and was showing off portrait mode to my mum and dad.

I took a photo of my father, with his beaming smile, in a poorly lit church.

In an instant, using the stage light edit setting, I had created a beautiful deep-etched photo of my dad's face with a solid black background - something that years ago would have taken a graphic artist ages to etch.

With prices starting at $1799 for the 6.5 inch Max to $2369 for the 512GB version, many will be wondering whether it's worth the upgrade. If you upgrading from last year's phone, the answer is no.

If you are upgrading from the 6 or 7 model or earlier, the answer depends on how much you value new technology and innovation.

At first look, the iPhone XS Max is a beautiful phone. It's finish, screen resolution, processing power and graphics capability is incredible.

iPhone Xs Max phone put to the test.Mark Furler

Watching HDR content on the 458 pixels per inch OLED screen, together with its much more impressive speakers, is a mini cinema experience.

The A12 Bionic chip and next generation neural engine combine beautifully in applications ranging from augmented reality to mobile gaming.

iPhone Xs Max phone put to the test.Mark Furler

But for me, the camera is always the main consideration in a phone.

And this combination is one of the best on the market, particularly when it comes to adjusting background blur after photos are taken.

While this is not new - Samsung and Huawei led the way - the user experience in adjusting F stops using a sliding scale - is arguably superior.

After you have taken your photo in portrait mode, you can slide from F1.4 to F16, watching the blur of the background change as you do.

iPhone Xs Max phone put to the test.Mark Furler

You can also still change the effect to through natural light, studio light, contour light, stage light to stage light mono.

The advanced bokeh and depth control creates some really beautiful family photos, something you would normally only achieve with an DSRL camera.

Both models of the iPhone XS feature dual 12-megapixel wide-angle and telephoto cameras with the wide-angle having an ƒ/1.8 aperture and the telephoto an ƒ/2.4 aperture.

The camera features dual optical image stabilisation - something you will notice, as I did, filming while being dragged along by two dogs on a beach.

iPhone Xs Max phone put to the test.Mark Furler

The Smart HDR promises - and delivers more highlights and shadow detail in your photos. We put it to the test in bright sunlight environments and lower light indoor shots and were impressed with the work of the faster sensors.

Video bloggers will also be happy to see the iPhone finally records in stereo sound - something that we noticed after shooting underneath a tree full of flying foxes.

iPhone XS uses four built-in microphones to record sound. The speakers are also a big improvement - offering what is described as 'wider stereo sound'.

Using crosstalk cancellation, the sound seems to project out from the speakers much further than before, making your mobile Netflix or movie watching experience more enjoyable.

iPhone Xs Max phone put to the test.Mark Furler

For the Instagram crowd, the selfie camera on the iPhone XS is one of the best around.

You can use the same portrait lighting feature that is available on the rear camera to separate the subject from the background, without impacting on the overall exposure.

The TrueDepth camera is also fun to use to create Animoji in messages.

Powering all this technology is the A12 Bionic which features a six-core fusion architecture with two performance cores that are up to 15 percent faster than the CPU performance cores in the A11 Bionic chip.

The new performance controller works dynamically to divide the load across the cores, harnessing all six when a power boost is needed.